In the four years since the ILN was founded we have run 8 rounds of the ILN’s peer mentoring program, providing unique professional development, networking and mentoring experiences to over 5,500 participants from 133 countries. We have also reached countless more library professionals through our website and social media activities. The growth of the ILN over the last four years has been tremendously exciting. We have loved hearing from our participants about their experiences engaging in the world of international librarianship.

The ILN is 100% volunteer run, meaning all of this has been achieved through the efforts of our amazing team of volunteers and a lot of our own time and energy. Whilst it has been very rewarding to see our community flourish, it has also been a challenge continuing to manage and grow the ILN on top of jobs and lives.

We feel it is time to invest in looking at options for the future of the ILN. Over the last few years we have run a number of strategic planning exercises, however, running the ILN takes a fair amount of time and effort and can take focus away from the planning activities. Over the last four years, we have always had only short breaks between program rounds, most of which is spent promoting the next round. In order for us to allow ourselves the time and space to deeply consider the shape of the ILN in the future, we need to take a break from the program.

So, we have decided that we will not run a round of the peer mentoring program in the first half of 2017.

We are keen to continue to support the community that has formed around the ILN. During the break we will continue to maintain the ILN website, sharing articles from the library community around the world, and we will continue to maintain our social media activities.

Throughout the break we will also be working with our volunteers to review the ILN’s activities and identify a plan for the future of the ILN. We will also ensure that we update you, our community, via this website as we have news.

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9 Comments

You do such a good job. The library community is blessed to have such dedicated volunteers in its midst. I have certainly benefitted from the 3 peer mentoring programs I have been involved in – even meeting up with one of the ladies I have been partnered with while on holiday this year.
We all look forward to continuing blog posts and sharing of valuable knowledge – and a return of the program later in 2017.